The vegetation is a mix of grasses, annual herbs and isolated patches of mesquite, cholla, ephedra and yucca.

Less than an hour west of Tucson, coasting down State Highway 86 before reaching Kitt Peak and the Baboquivari Mountains, a small hill rises from the cholla, saguaro, and mesquite dotting the landscape.

Land plants include many cacti, the most spectacular of which are the saguaro, with its thick, armlike branches, and a number of large chollas, such as the tree cholla, the jumping cholla, and the cane cholla.